List of Craft Shows & Events in UK

A few years ago I put together a list of events for Crafters on this blog under the tab of craft events, but unfortunately it was too complicated to keep it up, altho you can  still find the old dates and click on the links to see the current dates etc.

There does seem to be a lot going on this year, and so I have copied the listings from two different sources – hence the change of style half way down! – so do have a look and see if there is something that catches your fancy.

UK CRAFT SHOWS & EVENTS

Take a look at the fantastic range of events taking place from August to November

The British Wool Show 2018  Whatever your chosen craft there will be exciting treasures for you to discover as you explore the stands at the show. York Auction Centre, Murton Lane, Murton, York YO19 5GF 10th – 11th August 2018 Click here for more information

Festival of Quilts Visit Europe’s leading quilt show where you can view over 1,000 amazing quilts as well as stocking up on fabric and other quilting suppliers from the 300+ exhibitors. NEC, Birmingham 9th – 12th August 2018 Click here for more information

Henley Handmade Fair Explore marquees and outdoor markets filled with handmade jewellery, homewares, clothing and more – all lovingly created by specialist Craftspeople. Stonor Park Henley on Thames RG9 6HF Oxfordshire 24th – 27th August 2018 Click here for more information

Southern Wool Show Visit wonderful stands selling a wide range of products, workshops and free demonstrations allowing people to share their passion and skills for woolly arts and crafts. Newby Racecourse, Newby, RG14 7PN 1st September 10am to 4pm Click here for more information

Great Northern Needlecraft & Quilt Show Patchwork and quilting exhibition and needlecraft with trade stands selling all items within the needlecraft trade. The Great Yorkshire Showground, Harrogate, HG2 8QZ 31st August – 2nd September 2018 Click here for more information

The Creative Craft Show Stitching, Sewing & Hobbycrafts is where you’ll discover ideas, inspiration and all the supplies you could ever dream of! Discover new products and innovations, watch demonstrations and take part in workshops. EventCity, Manchester, M41 7TB 6th – 8th September 2018 Click here for more information

Perth Festival of Yarn 2018  Bringing together independent dyers, farmer, small-holders, knitters, spinners, felters and weavers Dewars Centre, Glover St, Perth PH2 0TH 8th – 9th September 2018 Click here for more information

The Handmade Fair The Handmade Fair is brought to you by Kirstie Allsopp and is all about appreciating the beauty of handmade, and learning the skills to become a maker yourself! | The Green, Hampton Court Palace, Surrey, KT8 9BU 14th – 16th September 2018 Click here for more information Cornish Yarn Festival 15 & 16 September 2018, 10am to 4pm St John’s Hall, Penzance http://www.cyfonline.biz Shetland Wool Week 22 – 30 September 2018 A busy week dedicated to celebrating Shetland wool and textile heritage. Includes classes, talks, drop-ins, art. See website for the full events listing. shetlandwoolweek.com The Wool Event, Masham Sheep Fair Saturday 29 Sep and Sunday 30 Sep 2018, Masham Town Hall Craft market and fleece stalls, specialising in British wool to compliment the sheep-related events that fill the square of Masham over the weekend. http://www.mashamsheepfair.com Yarndale 29 and 30 September 2018, Skipton Auction Mart, North Yorkshire For you if you love yarn and are passionate about all things woolly. It aims to celebrate the beauty and diversity of wool, cotton, linen and silk fibres in all their forms. yarndale.co.uk Bakewell Wool Gathering Bakewell Agricultural Centre Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 October An event for wool lovers in the heart of the Derbyshire Dales. There will be exhibitors, demonstrations of fibre crafts and a fleece stand selling plenty of local fleece. bakewellwool.co.uk/ West Wales Wool Show 2018 Saturday October 6, Queen’s Hall and Plas Hyfryd Hotel, Narberth, Pembrokeshire A celebration of all things woolly. From beautifully hand crafted items, clothing and footwear to knitting wool, fleece and all the equipment needed to make at home. Demonstrations run throughout the day with stall holders sharing their skills and knowledge with visitors plus wool skill workshops such as felting. westwaleswoolshow.weebly.com Kendal Wool Gathering Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th of October Kendal Wool Gathering mixes demonstrations, fun activities and displays, all connected to the cloth on which the town’s wealth was built. Stands and stalls representing all aspects of commercial wool products, including carpets, looms, spinning wheels and crafts will be on display at a large unit at Kendal Leisure Centre. Outside there will be livestock, walks and talks. Linked fun events take place throughout the Kendal. www.kendalwoolgathering.co.uk Nottingham Yarn Expo Nottingham Conference Centre Goldsmith Street Entrance, Nottingham. NG1 4BU Workshops Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 November. Market place Sunday 11 November https://www.nottinghamyarnexpo.com

How Industrial Weaving gave us the Computer

This is a short video produced by the BBC Future Series – worth a look!

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20180423-how-industrial-weaving-gave-us-the-computer

Punched card pattern for a jacquard loom. Artist: Dorothy Burrows

“In the early 19th Century, Joseph Marie Jacquard invented a remarkable machine that reinvigorated the fashion industry – and ultimately led to the modern computer.”

 

julzcraftstore.com – a quick update…

For those of you who seem to be checking this blog out on a regular basis, to see when the new website will be live – I can only apologise!

Well, I did say it would take some time to get THE STORE up and running!  And its certainly taking a lot of time!  I never realised it was going to be so complicated, and as I am not a ‘techie’, its been a slow learning curve.

I just thought I could follow the instructions and then it would take some time to enter the 100+ listings for the stock I have in my living room!  However – its not quite that easy, and it turns out that I have been spoilt by the large selling sites that I have been using up to now.

Ebay and Etsy have a very comprehensive system for costing reasonably accurate postal rates – or shipping costs – as others call them, and I thought I could do better than them!

It turns out to be a very complicated matter, because there are 4 shipping zones to cover, all of which have different tariffs for weight and size, and even if I put in the weight and dimensions of each item, it still wouldn’t give me an accurate price per parcel!  I have done a lot of research on this, even spoken to Royal Mail themselves – and nowhere in their repertoire is there any help for websites to set up their pricing system.  The Business Section, which will happily link in with ebay to offer you cheaper postage – had never heard of a ‘plug-in’ for small businesses, and were utterly unhelpful!

When I contacted various other UK businesses and asked them how they had sorted out the problem, most of them said, they didn’t know, because they had employed a specialist to do their website – I’D NEVER EVEN CONSIDERED DOING THAT!

Having bought from various sites over the years, it seemed the best compromise would be to set flat rates for each shipping zone for the moment, and I even had trouble working out how to do that!  There are some +ve’s and -ve’s about using flat rates, and it would certainly put some of you off if I charged you parcel rate for an item that can be posted in letter form – so – head’s up for my readers – if you contact me before you put in your order for a small, flat item – like a badge or small signs etc – I will agree to refund you the extra postage that the system will charge – because I can’t find a way to be able to offer TWO FLAT RATES at the moment, and nor can the ‘Happiness Engineers’ at WordPress!

I aim to post WORLDWIDE, on the same basis, until I can come up with a better solution!

That said – there are a few more things I need to iron out before julzcraftstore.com – julz craft supplies – THE STORE – will go live – but it shouldn’t take too long now – cross fingers!

I hope some of you will come and visit when it does!

 

Julz Craft Supplies & julzcraftsupplies & julzweaving – changes to my ebay accounts

I have been doing a bit of re-organisation during the last month or so, and changing round my ebay listings –

so thought I’d let you know what changes I have made, as they might be a bit confusing for my customers – and I don’t want to lose you!

When I started this blog several years ago, it was actually called Julz Spinning and Weaving Club, and was really just a place for my customers to find out a bit more about what I stocked.  The blog changed radically from January of this year, when I did the online blogging101 course and I learnt how to use the range of possibilities that blogging can give you!  The background used to be a tiled version of the pink woven scarf I made ages ago – smile – but a lot of people on the course thought it was a bit fussy as a background, so I changed to the current look!

You might not have noticed, that I have just subtly changed the header – it used to say Julz Crafts and was a bit clunky!

So from now on, its Julz Craft Supplies – a name I have always used for my etsy account – this is the banner I am using for my shop on etsy – if you click on the banner it will take you there.

I had a long standing business account on ebay (called 85solway), but hadn’t used it for a while, so I opened a new account last year, which I called  julzweaving – a bit more relevant for what I intended to sell!

Things have gone really well on julzweaving – but there was a problem – it was a private account – which meant that I had 20 free listings a month – great! – but at the same time – it was treated as a new account and I was only allowed to list  a set amount of items a month!

This has been getting more and more of a nuisance, and you might have noticed that I have had to constantly add or subtract the number of say, cones of warping yarns I have to sell, when I actually have 20, I’ve only been able to list 4!  They gave me the maximum amount of items allowed on a private account – BUT  I have been juggling with it for months now!

I was just about to change julzweaving into a business account, so I could list more items, when I found out that it was easy to change the name of my old account – 85solway – to julzcraftsupplies!  It literally took me 2 minutes – I’ve had that account since 2004 and I’d never realised I could change the name!

SO – I AM SLOWLY MOVING THE LISTINGS

FROM JULZWEAVING TO JULZCRAFTSUPPLIES!

(Clicking on the names of the accounts will take you to them)

As the listings expire on julzweaving, I will be moving them over to julzcraftsupplies – which allows me to list as many items as I want and the full amount of stock I have of each!  (Many of these are also available in the etsy shop)

I will not be closing the julzweaving account, and I’m sure I’ll be using my free listings there – maybe for auction listings so you can get a bargain – maybe for just personal items I want to sell – but just at the moment, both sites are stocking my craft supplies – and I’m sorry if I am confusing my buyers – but unless I mention it on the actual listings – there is no way on ebay itself, to let you know that they have moved!

COMING SOON – CHRISTMAS FABRICS FOR YOU TO

MAKE XMAS STOCKINGS, GIFTS ETC – AND …..

On julzcraftsupplies – I have re-stocked with both standard and mini hand carders for spinners and also got a new lot of carding cloth in for those of you who would like to make your own BLENDING BOARD.  Instructions are given on the listing – and this time I have not only 13″ lengths, but also 18″ lengths, which give you more scope for producing interesting rolags.

stainless steel carding cloth

pair of standard hand carders – 72 pt

pair of mini hand carders

and now – for something new – 3D Weaving!

I came upon this today – scary isn’t it !

New Technology is replacing us weavers ……

 

Unlike 3D Printing, 3D Weaving Uses

Old Techniques for Futuristic Forms

Designer Jim Chen-Hsiang Hu shows off an emerging method of clothes-weaving that overcomes 3D printing in range of texture and thread integrity

Jim Chen-Hsiang Hu’s graduation collection at Central St. Martins takes a close look at fashion’s most basic element, thread, and turns it into a malleable material with height, width and depth. Unlike in 3D printed clothing, Chen-Hsiang Hu’s collection moves into 3D territory without a clear jump off point.

On his website, he describes his creativity as “Dedicated to design and techno development.” His “Xi” collection pieces were all done in red, with laser-cut fabric that blend naturally into shapes that extend the human form. The cut-outs of the flat fabrics seem to predate the 3D forms, forming dark shadows that accentuate the protrusions. The designer won the L’Oreal Young Talent Award for his work on 3D weaving.

3D weaving is a minority in the world dominated by additive manufacturing. Instead of working on a shape layer-by-layer, 3D weaving requires special looms (Chen-Hsiang Hu used a bespoke one) and the shapes are built axis by axis. His collection was made with a combination of thread and resin.

However, automation in the complicated process isn’t impossible. Oluwaseyi Sosanya has developed a 3D weaver that created materials with high impact resistance and auxetic properties. As proof-of-concept, Sosanya has used his weaver’s output as soles of shoes.

Despite the familiar 3D quality, printing and weaving have distinctly different approaches. Weaving shares a deeper connection with fashion. It is manufactured in a loom and requires the repetitive intertwining of thread, not different from manufacturing traditional textile. Printing, on the other hand, is more industrial in the melting of the raw material and the mechanical whir of layer-by-layer printing.

The future of 3D printing in fashion are fueled by obvious benefits: bespoke shapes, ease of manufacturing and range. But alongside it is 3D weaving, a more complex process, but with a lot of interesting characteristics like auxetic-ness, texture, and varying strength that all function while keeping the fundamental form of thread intact.

 

LEO LUTERO

• 11 AUGUST 2015

source: http://www.psfk.com/2015/08/3d-weaving-versus-3d-printing-chen-hsiang-hu.html

 

Why we need a women’s revolution in Somalia

This post has nothing to do with crafts – but it has a lot to do with women, and is utterly shocking, especially to know that this is all happening in 2015 – you have been warned!

Thank you to Dr. Vanessa Lopez-Littleton (USA) whose blog I follow – she originally re-blogged this on Stirring Up Trouble on 14 July.

Media Diversified

‘At the “Vision 2016” National Conference in September 2013, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud committed to deliver a nationwide “one man, one vote” election by August 2016’

by Yasmin Maydhane

Today my uncle sold his youngest daughter – a 16 year old – to the highest bidder (yes, I mean quite literally sold – whereby the father is approached by the would-be-husband and they negotiate a price – you can still sell girls here), the highest bidder being of a political background, with strong connections to international NGOs and a member of parliament. It should also be mentioned, that my uncle works for the government as well.

Know that these two men, are educated, powerful, influential and dare I say, 21^st century crooks and abusers, yet at the same time maintain the claim that they champion women’s rights.

The purchase of my cousin has brought shock, loathing and dismay –…

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